Lexus LF-LC Fully Revealed in New Photos: Detroit Auto Show Preview

Lexus has released new photos of its stunning new concept car, pointing to the future of the brand’s styling as well as a possible new model. The LF-LC hybrid concept adapts the brand’s new grille, as first seen on the 2013 GS, while looking like a luxurious 2+2 version of the LFA supercar.
Lexus has said little about its new super coupe, although badging on the side has revealed that it is a hybrid.
Look for full details to come with the car’s official debut planned for the North American International Auto Show next week.

GALLERY: Lexus LF-LC Concept

Chris-Craft Builds An Infiniti V8 Powered Mahogany Speedboat

 
Infiniti‘s brawny 5.6 liter V8 proves to not only motivate land yachts but actual maritime yachts as well. Students at the Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College have removed the titanic power plant from a donor Infiniti QX56 to ready it for maritime duty in an iconic 1962 Chris-Craft “Holiday” mahogany speedboat.

The 400-hp engine has been sent to Westbrook, Maine, where the engine bell housing was modified to be compatible with a ZF/Hurth marine transmission. Next, a shop in Alabama puts the Infiniti engine through a program called “marination, ” involving custom water-cooled exhaust manifolds and the adaptation of a closed cooling system. Then, the big V8 will be taken back to the Infiniti engine facility in Decherd, Tennessee so it could get tested on a dynamometer to assure that its performance numbers are still up to factory specifications. Finally, the engine will await for its final installation into the Chris-Craft’s hull.

In the past, Chris-Craft boats adopted engines including a 431-cubic inch Lincoln marine engine and a pair of 440-cubic inch Chrysler Hemi marine V8s. However, George “Dodo” Brockman, owner of Freeport Boat Outlet, and the director of the Infiniti boat project says, “The use of the powerful Infiniti QX56 V8 is fitting with the history of the particular craft. The Infiniti V8 is actually lighter than all of the previous powerplants and won’t require any special bracing or hull modifications to fit into the original engine bay.”

In line with it’s handcrafted heritage, the 1962 Chris-Craft “Holiday” is currently lying upside down in Freeport Maine ready to undergo a painstaking restoration process involving more than 600 board feet of high grade sustainably harvest mahogany to cover the framework, hull, transom, and deck. 15 coats of special marine varnish will be applied to the craft over a period of a month.

Brockman continued, “Before the future Infiniti lake cruiser can return to the water, we’ve had to tear it down to virtually nothing and start building it back up with fresh wood… Ultimately, it looks like we’ll have to replace nearly 85 percent of the original wood, one piece at a time, due to age and rot.” Brockman adds, “When the 20-foot Chris-Craft Holiday model was introduced in 1962, it was said to be one of the best performing Chris-Craft hulls ever produced. It cornered well, was easy to come on plane and was often used in nationally sanctioned water skiing events for just those reasons. We can’t wait to see how this classic design performs with the new engine.”

When the mahogany speedboat is complete, a custom boat trailer to match a 2012 Infiniti QX56 will also be built.

GALLERY: Infiniti Chris Craft

No More Mr. Cayenne Guy: Spain’s Financial Crisis Kill Sales of Luxury Cars

When a couple is married, they vow to love and cherish each other for richer or poorer, in good or bad times. Buying a car, especially an expensive one like a Porsche Cayenne, is kind like a marriage, in the sense that you get to live with it every day – except that you can have more than one and it doesn't talk back to you…
When things go bad, however, it’s not just couples that get a divorce: the ongoing financial crisis that has plagued Northern European countries is forcing owners to depart with their beloved vehicles because they simply can’t afford their expenses anymore.
Greece, Italy and Spain are the countries hit the hardest so far by the crisis, and as a result, their economies are crumpling and many citizens find themselves unemployed or struggling to hold on to their jobs.
In this economic climate, owning an expensive car is, like a Porsche Cayenne, is indeed, a luxury. You see, while the SUV saved Porsche from bankruptcy, it’s now threatening to do the opposite to many of its owners.
Take Roberto Murga from Barcelona, for example. “I can’t splurge anymore, and maintaining my precious Cayenne is just too expensive”, Murga told Business Week.
Before the crisis, his monthly income was around €8,000. When the real estate bubble burst, he had no choice but to fire half of his employees, as he admits, “we have no profit at all, we just try to survive”.
With Spain’s unemployment rate reaching an shocking 22.8 percent, things getting worse every day and no light at the end of the tunnel, the Spaniards are having a hard time indeed.
As in Greece, in Spain, the Cayenne was seen as a status symbol – an outright statement to onlookers that you have really made it.
Today’s dire financial situation has been labeled “the Cayenne crisis” by Victor Conde, a marketing professor at Madrid’s Universidad Nebrija.
“This car was the paradigm of how we lived above what we could afford”, he says. “Banks were giving away too many loans and everybody here was driving a Cayenne.”
 
Now the luxury SUV sales in Spain and Portugal have fallen 34 percent compared to 2007, their best-ever year. Porsche is not the only one affected; BMW sales are almost halved, being reduced by 47 percent.
Car dealers are experiencing a sharp decline in their revenue. “The Cayenne was the favorite car for many people, especially in the construction industry”, said Madrid-based Arguelles Automoviles sales manager Angel Rodriguez. “Later many found out they couldn’t afford it, or even pay for it at all, and I see them now driving a Renault”, he added.
Even mass-market manufacturers are feeling the strain. Ford has already announced that it will temporarily suspend 4,000 workers at its Valencia plant and even Seat is considering moving production to more cost-efficient facilities owned by the VW Group, in countries like China.
Economics professor Ricardo Mateo says that, without reforms, the Spanish auto industry is doomed: “Labor costs and taxes in Spain are high, unions very strong, and the industry needs to remain competitive as cars are now also produced in China, Korea, India and South Africa.”

PHOTO GALLERY